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Gothia
Gothia, also variously known as the Kingdom of Gothia, Kingdom of the Goths, and Gothic Gaul is a country in Western Europe. The realm was founded in 402 when Vithericus, King of the Ostrogoths, captured the city of Lugdunum and began the Gothic conquest of Gaul. The Gothic realm joined the Carthagennan Empire in 969, and has remained part of the Empire ever since (excluding a 15-year period during the reign of Pons the Cruel). Despite its Germanic origins, Gothia leans heavily on its Roman influences. The Germanic Old Gothic language faded out use during the Early Middle Ages in favour of the Gautés tongue, a Romance language. Gothic kings very early on dropped the Gothic term þiudans in favor of Latin rex and later the Gautés term rei, and later on even adopted a Senate roughly based upon the Roman model. Gothia has had a very elastic geographic definition. At various times, the realm has controlled all of Gaul sans Septimania, Central Gaul without Armorica, Aquitania and Belgica, and for a few centuries controlled Rome itself and portions of North Africa and Britain. History Foundation It is difficult to determine what the first historical attestation of the Goths is, but by the 3rd century AD they were known well enough in the Greco-Roman world that a panegyric dating from the time of the Roman Tetrarchy speaks of specific divisions of the Goths. Ostrogothi are not specifically named as such in any surviving documents until 392, but likely existed as a recognizable tribal confederation for some time before then, and have a probable ancestor in the Greuthungi Goths. Another Gothic branch, the Tervingi, transformed into what later became known as the Visigoths around the same time as the Greuthung/Ostrogoth transition. Both the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths entered the Roman Empire in the 390s, near the lower Danube River. The Visigoths sacked the Eastern Roman gold-mining town of Trimontium and then proceeded eastward. The Ostrogoths originally seem to have intended to stay in the region of Macedonia and Moesia for a longer period of time than their Visigothic brethren, but the arrival of the Huns in 396 compelled the Ostrogoths to flee westward, seizing ships in Epirus and sailing across the Adriatic to Italy. The Huns pursued them, and in 397 eventually forced the Ostrogoths into battle near the Italian city of Neapolis. There, under the leadership of Vithericus, the Ostrogoths managed to pull off a surprise victory and fended off the Huns. The Ostrogoths moved north through the Italian Peninsula, sacking Rome twice in 397 and 400, and helping some renegade Roman senators establish the Tyranny of Italy, before coming across the Roxolani, another nomadic tribe similar to the Huns. Like the Huns, the Roxolani were determined to attack the Ostrogoths, citing a tribal dispute, and pursued the Ostrogoths across the Alps and into Gaul. Seeking a walled location to protect the Ostrogoths from the horse nomads, King Vithericus attacked the Roman city of Lugdunum in 402, and successfully fended off the Roxolani. Lugdunum thus became the first Gothic settlement in Gaul, and the foundation of the Kingdom of Gothia. Amaling Gothia Under the rule of the Vithericus and his son Vithimiris, members of the Amaling dynasty, the Goths spent the next half-century expanding the Gothic domain in old Roman Gallia. Gaul was a anarchic region in the early 5th century, with the Western Roman Empire, Goths, Franks, Gallo-Roman separatists and (briefly) Irish pirates all vying to gain supremacy. The Franks were one of the Goths' earliest and most long-lasting rivals. Even as Vithericus assaulted the walls of Lugdunum, the Franks were already seizing control of the Aquitanian coast. Dislodging the Franks proved to be a slow task, and even at the end of the 5th century there were still some Gallo-Frankish strongholds among the northern foothills of the Pyrenees. As the Western Roman Empire collapsed, governance tended to fall to local Gallo-Roman notables in regions where Germanic kingdoms had not yet expanded. Because of this local persistence, there are two known Gallo-Roman realms in the fifth century that called themselves 'Gaul'. Both Gauls were eventually destroyed after coming into conflict with the growing Gothic kingdom, and were conquered by it. In southern Gallia, there were two other Gallo-Roman realms that called themselves 'Septimania'. The second iteration of the realm survived the fifth century, and became the basis of the Kingdom of Septimania. By the end of Vithimiris' reign in 459, the Gothic realm incorporated most of old Gallia, excluding Septimania along the Mediterranean coastline. The borders established by Vithericus and Vithimiris remained steady for the next three hundred years; the Franks which had not moved into Gaul remained in force on the far side of the Rhine, making eastward expansion difficult and any trans-Rhenish gains ephemeral during moments of Gothic weakness. Southward expansion was also limited, as the Alps and the Pyrenees, guarded by garrisons of the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish remnants of the Western Roman Empire respectively, held firm and marked Gothia's southern boundary. The House of Triarius' Rise The Amaling line encountered a surprise challenge to its rule in the 8th century, when King Sigisvult died childless. A magnate of the minor Triarius dynasty from Divio had fathered a bastard son to an Amaling princess, and hurried to install him on the Gothic throne as Thiudareiks II. There was a legitimate Amaling claimant to the throne who could trace his lineage back to King Gudahardus, his great-grandfather, but Amaling legitimists were slow to support his cause. He nonetheless managed to eventually rally many northeastern lords, and was soon proclaimed King Luthaweic of Belgica in opposition to Thiudareiks II in Gothia. The reign of Thiudareiks II was a rocky start for Triarian rule. The young king had to contend not only with Amaling forces in Belgica, but also secessionists in Aquitania. The king attempted to reassert Gothia's rule in Armorica as a prelude to war with Belgica, but died and left Gothia divided his two sons, one ruling a rump Gothia and the other in control of a reforged Kingdom of Armorica. Because of these early conflicts, the struggle to reunite Gothic lands became the main goal of the Triarian kings of Gothia until King Amalric completed the conquest of Armorica in the late tenth century. Romanization The Ostrogoths that settled in Gaul in the 5th century spoke a Germanic tongue and followed Arian Christianity, while most of their subjects spoke (Vulgar) Latin and followed Roman Orthodox teachings. Some exchange of cultures had occurred, but the religious division had prevented the creation of a share identity between Gothic rulers and Gallo-Roman subjects. That began to change in the 8th and 9th centuries, as the Goths aligned themselves with the Gallo-Roman Septimanians in southern Gaul and the medieval Carthagennan Empire in Hispania. King Gabriel, under the influence of his Roman wife, became the first Gothic monarch to convert to Orthodoxy, and during the reign of Amalric the kingdom underwent a significant shift away from (Germanic or Old) Gothic and towards Gautés, a Romance language influenced by Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin and elements of the Old Gothic tongue. Imperial Gothia The union of Goth and Roman was completed under Empress Lidia the Wise and Emperor Tiuderic the Black. Through careful management of marriages, the Goths had managed to maneuver a young scion, Lidia, onto the throne of the Carthagennan Empire. Lidia was not in line for the Gothic throne, however; she was instead wed to the Amalric the Monk, who shortly became king of Gothia himself. Through their marriage, it was guaranteed that any sons of theirs would become both heir to the Gothic and Carthagennan crowns. Amalric and Lidia's son, Tiuderic the Black, did live to unite Gothia with the Empire, but the resulting size of the united realm forced Tiuderic and his successors to drastically reform the imperial structure through decentralization and feudalization. Gothia retained its identity and autonomy largely due to these measures, and became a reliable powerbase for the Triarians whenever they lost the imperial crown. Renaissance and Reformation The Gothia that emerged at the cusp of the Renaissance was much more Romanized and well more integrated into the Roman world than the Gothia that had existed during the Middle Ages. Category:Countries Category:Goths